1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a saddle riding type vehicle, such as a motorcycle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is known a saddle riding type vehicle including a head pipe that supports a steering handle that is capable of rotating, a frame that extends obliquely downward to the rear from the head pipe, and an engine supported by the frame in a suspended state. As a saddle riding type vehicle of this type, for example, motorcycles disclosed in JP-A-08-067285, JP-A-05-330474, and JP-A-05-330475 described below are known.
The motorcycle disclosed in JP-A-08-067285 includes a head pipe and a pair of left and right main frames that extend obliquely downward to the rear from the head pipe. Brackets are coupled to rear portions of the main frames. An engine is supported by the left and the right main frames and brackets in a suspended state. The motorcycle also includes rear swing arms that support a rear wheel. The rear swing arms are supported by the brackets via a pivot shaft to move up and down freely.
In such a saddle riding type vehicle, it is desired to reduce the weight of a body frame or reduce the width of the vehicle while maintaining the strength of the body frame. For improving convenience in getting on and off the vehicle, it is also desired to keep a portion ahead of a seat low.
However, in the conventional saddle riding type vehicle, the engine is supported by the pair of left and right main frames and brackets in an upper portion and a rear portion of a crankcase of the engine. Consequently, the main frames and the brackets are required to have a large degree of rigidity. Therefore, in order to maintain the rigidity of the main frames and the brackets, it is necessary to increase the thickness of the main frames and the brackets. However, when the thickness of the main frames and the like is increased, it is difficult to reduce the weight of the body frame.
In the conventional saddle riding type vehicle, both the engine and the rear swing arms are held between the pair of left and right brackets. Consequently, an interval between the left and the right brackets is increased and the main frame extends outward in the left and right directions. Therefore, it is difficult to reduce the width of the vehicle (a reduction in the width in a vehicle width direction).